Troston Loch Wind Farm

Project News

EDF Renewables has submitted a Section 36 application for permission to build and operate the Troston Loch wind farm.

All consultees have been notified and sent a copy of the application. Members of the public who have opted to receive correspondence on the project have also been notified and public adverts have been placed in the following newspapers:

Project Description

EDF Renewables has developed a proposal for a new wind farm to be built on land at the Troston Estate, located around seven kilometres west of Moniaive in Dumfries and Galloway.

Plans for the scheme were first announced in early 2018 and a series of local exhibition events were held for residents and local stakeholders in Moniaive and Dalry to share details and developments of the scheme in April and October 2018.

The scheme has been through a variety of design iterations. The position of turbines in the latest layout has been changed to account for detailed site investigation and feedback from consultees, whilst seeking to maximise renewable energy generation.

Since the project inception, we are now proposing to:

Reduce the number of turbines on the site from 15 to 14

Retain the original turbine heights from the ground to the blade tip of up to 149.5 metres

Include an on-site energy storage facility to support the grid network and provide back-up power

Because the proposed development will be over 50MW, the wind farm is classed as a Section 36 scheme and requires the submission of an application to the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit (ECU). The application was lodged with the ECU on February 26th 2019 and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the scheme is included in the Project Documents downloads section below.

The new Troston Loch wind farm would be an important source of low carbon electricity and would:

Have a generating capacity of around 67MW

Meet the average annual domestic electricity requirements of up to 40,000 homes*

*Load factors based on the five year rolling averages as calculated by R-UK using 'Digest of UK Energy Statistics' - latest figures as per July 2018 release Based upon the average domestic electricity consumption per home per the Energy Consumption in the UK (published July 2018)

Questions and Answers

Community Benefit Fund

If the application is successful, EDF Renewables would establish a community benefit fund for the wind farm when it becomes operational. It would be established in line with the Scottish Government Good Practice Principles for Community Benefits from Onshore Renewable Energy Developments. At current levels, based on a proposed generation capacity of 67.2MW, the proposed scheme would provide a local benefit fund of up to £336,000 each year for the lifetime of the wind farm.

Shared Ownership

EDF Renewables supports the principles of shared ownership that gives local community groups and organisations the opportunity to invest in and share in the profit generated by wind farms. This shared ownership opportunity has been offered to local groups at the public exhibitions via information leaflets and is proposed in addition to the proposed Community Benefit Fund.

At this stage, we are simply assessing any interest and would welcome feedback from local community groups. If there is sufficient interest, we propose to hold an event which would give community groups the opportunity to discuss the matter with representatives from EDF Renewables.

Local Energy Scotland is aware of the scheme and is available to provide impartial and independent advice to members of the public on fund raising and all related shared ownership matters.

Section 36 Application

Because the proposed development will be over 50MW, the wind farm is classed as a Section 36 scheme and requires the submission of an application to the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit (ECU). We anticipate that an application for consent will be submitted to the ECU in early 2019.

Hard copies of the application documents are available to view in hard copy at:

Location

Address

Opening Hours

Dumfries and Galloway Council

Council Headquarters, English Street, Dumfries, DG1 2DD

Open 9am until 5pm Monday to Friday, apart from public holidays

Dalry Library

81 Main Street, St John's Town of Dalry, Castle Douglas, DG7 3UP

Open 10.30am until 2pm Tuesday and 11am until 4.30pm on Friday

Making Your Views Known

All stakeholder feedback and comments received during Pre-Application public consultation is included within the 'Pre-Application Consultation Report' which forms part of our consent application.

In addition, the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit will be holding a consultation period for members of the public and consultees to make their views known ahead of any decisions being taken on the application. As part of this process, Dumfries and Galloway Council will be responsible for handling all neighbour notifications.

This consultation period will open on Tuesday 5th March and close on Friday 5th April.

If you have any further questions or would like to contact us regarding Troston Loch wind farm, please send us an email at troston@edf-re.uk

Related links

Project Description

EDF Renewables has developed a proposal for a new wind farm to be built on land at the Troston Estate, located around seven kilometres west of Moniaive in Dumfries and Galloway.

Plans for the scheme were first announced in April 2018 and have been modified since the initial public exhibitions held at that time. To provide more details on the proposed scheme a second series of local information events are being held for residents and local stakeholders as follows:

Since first announcing the scheme, we have continued to consider various layout options for the site. The position of turbines in this new layout has been changed because of visual and site constraints, whilst seeking to maximise renewable energy generation.

As a result we are now proposing to:

Reduce the number of turbines on the site from 15 to 14

Retain the original turbine heights from the ground to the blade tip of up to 149.5 metres

Include an on-site energy storage facility to support the grid network and provide back-up power

The new Troston wind farm would be an important source of low carbon electricity and would:

Have a generating capacity of around 67MW

Meet the average annual domestic electricity requirements of up to 40,000 homes

EDF Renewables is completing its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the revised development and it is anticipated that an application will be submitted to the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit in early 2019.